THE IMPORTANCE of maintaining a competitive edge will be on Brisbane Lions coach Michael Voss' agenda when his young side recommences training after a largely "non-competitive" night against Essendon and St Kilda on Friday.

Voss said he looked for "the little things" among his crop of players making their debuts and singled out Mitch Golby, Patrick Karnezis, Jared Polec and Broc McCauley as having caught the eye.

"We've got to go back and be able to train [competitiveness] because if we don't get it in games, we've got to get it on the training track until we get ti where it becomes instinctive to us," he said.

"Thank God it's practice matches because that wasn't really great for us, with what we got out if it.

"We walk away having got time into our younger players and every one of our draftees played, so that's a positive."

Voss said those players would be given further chances to stake claims for round one in the next few weeks although the team would gradually be strengthened as the pre-season competition progressed.

Jed Adcock is expected to play next week while Jonathan Brown, Luke Power and Simon Black will wait until the third round.

While Voss agreed his side improved in the first half against St Kilda after going down to Essendon in a dramatic 62-point loss, he was disappointed with the overall result given the way the Lions ended last year and the off-season they've had.

"You don't want to come into the season not putting in good performances," he said.

"In reality, as much as we're disappointed, at the same time we've got to realise it's a first game [but] we never walk out there in the Brisbane Lions jumper and expect to put in a performance like that.

"It doesn't matter what age you are, or where you come from and what your background is, the fact is we expect a better effort that that and we didn't quite get it across most of our team."

Todd Banfield looked to have carried on his promising 2010 form to be one of the side's best in the 29-point loss to the Saints.

"He just got in the groove of it and probably lifted us really, with what he was able to do there and we're looking for him to take the next step," Voss said.